In Kurdistan, the border between Iran and Iraq, a band of teachers are trudging through a barren area, seemingly without directions, each with a rickety blackboard on their back like useless, clumsy wings. Even though the atmosphere is pessimistic, there are plenty of (black,) deadpanned humour colouring this film. In the midst of this heartless desert, with their “students” — smugglers and nomads — worrying more about their life, uninterested in the supposedly higher calling of “education” and “culture”, their “virtuous” endeavour becomes futile, even ridiculous. “Education”, or “culture” — especially the non-oral (reading & writing) — is reduced into yet another useless commodity. The usual cliches for the value of education becomes no different from any other cheap sales cajoling. Saïd offers his guiding service to a group of nomads trying to return to their homeland to die, and his blackboard is turned into a carrier for an old man as well as a dowry for the old man’s daughter. With ingenious, satirical nonchalance, the wife indifferently waits for her son to piss during the ceremony (while her own father is having painful difficulties pissing). She pays no attention to Saïd’s attempts to teach her some writings and readings, let alone to sleep with her. The last scene of this film — where they divorced and the wife walked away with the blackboard dowry — bores indelible impressions.

Samira Makhmalbaf

Like many other Iranian New Wave (or perhaps Poetic Realism, if you like), this film used non-professional actors, hand-held cameras and minimum budget, creating a film that blurs the line between fiction and documentary, yet also brimming with poetic images. At the age of 18 Samira became the youngest director ever participated in the international Cannes Film Festival with her debut The Apple. After winning the Jury Prize in Cannes 2000 with Blackboards, in 2003, she again won the Jury Prize with At Five in the Afternoon. Although many sceptics initially dismissed The Apple as no more than the work and influence of her famouse father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, with Blackboards Samira showed herself as a talented filmmaker in her own right. In his book Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, Future, Hamid Dabashi even declared that Samira cuts through the pretensions that plagued the “overbloated” “old masters” of Iran, including Dariush Mehrjui, Abbas Kiarostami, and her own father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

Interested in Iranian films? We have various titles by Dariush Mehrjui, Forugh Farrokhzad, Jafar Panahi, Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Bahram Beizai, Bahman Farmanara… for more information, ask us or visit us at c2o!

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kathleen azali: Founding director, c2o library & collabtive. Currently also working in Singapore as a Research Associate at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS). Opinions are hers, and do not represent/reflect her employer(s), institution(s), or anyone else with whom she may be remotely affiliated.Email this author | Visit author's website | All posts by kathleen azali